The world is a manifestation of the three gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas). When selfishness and self-interest are rampant, people forget kindness and compassion, when the forces of injustice, immorality and untruth grow to monstrous proportions and indulge in a death-dance, the Atmic principle, Divine Mother Shakti, takes on the Rajasic form to suppress and win over the dark forces of evil, and protect Sattvic qualities. This is the inner meaning of the Dasara festival. During the ten days of the Dasara Festival, ask yourself, has the Divine Mother destroyed the 10 demons (rakshasas) within you? Rakshasas are not demonic beings but wicked qualities. Arrogance, bad thoughts, lust, anger, delusion, greed, pride, envy, ego, and hatred are the demons that must be destroyed. You must decide for yourself whether you are now a Ravana or Rama according to your qualities! Embodiments of Divine Love! From today, lead your life with selfless love and live in peace and joy!
What can you achieve with your paltry intelligence? A man once laughed at God for giving the majestic banyan tree a tiny seed and conferring on the ash gourd, a gigantic fruit. “No sense of proportion,” he thought! He was travelling, and as time passed, he felt tired and happened to sleep under the shade of a banyan tree. When he woke up, he saw many seeds that had fallen on his body. If only the banyan tree had seeds in proportion to its size, a single seed falling from that height would have killed the critic in no time! He thanked God for His perfect logic and wisdom and continued the journey, feeling safe and secure. Take everything as it comes, and cultivate contentment. Do not multiply your wants and foster greed and despair. You take off your warm clothing when you start feeling warm yourself. The coat of desire has to be taken off when the warmth of devotion increases. Strive to secure grace, do not strive to secure any lesser fruit.
Shocked at the news of the death of a pilot whale in Thailand due to consumption of plastic bags, Varun Saikia, a 12-year-old boy from Vadodara, wanted to design a machine which could help in cleaning polluted water bodies. Curious about the causes of plastic pollution prevalent in water bodies, he started researching more about the topic. Soon, he realised that it was a major global environmental problem and many countries have been grappling with the issue.
h “I thought of making a machine that would clean and collect all the floating plastic waste in rivers, ponds and lakes. Plastic floats on water bodies which makes it harder to scoop up and collect”, shares Varun Saikia, an eighth class student from Navrachana School, Vadodara. He came up with this idea in an attempt to combat the increasing pollution problems. His innovative device is named Makara which is designed to sweep the polluted ponds of our cities. What sets this device apart is that it is completely battery-operated which would reduce the manual work involved in cleaning.
Concerned about the increasing environmental pollution, he kept reading about adverse changes that have taken place all over the world as a result of pollution. He also came to know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how it impacted ocean bodies on a major scale. He was distressed to learn about water pollution and he finally decided to come up with a solution which could be implemented in nearby localities and polluted water bodies.
What is Makara?
Makara is a concept that uses the fluid mechanics of water to direct the plastic towards the receptacle without using any extra force other than the same mechanism which drives the machine forward. It is a simple machine yet sturdy in its structure. Propelled by a basic motor and remote, it can be customised to increase its capacity by using a heavy-duty motor and making adjustments to pulley.
Based on its current capacity, it can collect up to three kg of floating garbage in one go. The machine is ideal for catching floating Styrofoam cups, plastic bottles and bags and dead floating insects. What makes it unique from other pond and ocean cleaning devices is its mobility in water bodies. Another added advantage of this machine is that unlike other models, it doesn’t need to be installed around the polluted water bodies. It could be effortlessly used to clean swimming pools as well.
Varun narrates, ”This model is made up of a paddle wheel operated by a motor and a pulley. It can be controlled using a remote. The paddle wheel pushes the vessel ahead and navigates the floating garbage to the net tail bin. The tail bin is attached to a basket which could be removed to unload the floating garbage collected inside it.”
He opines that using such simple models could extensively contribute in clearing garbage from polluted lakes and ponds. Apart from this, it would also be beneficial for the manual labourers working nearby dirty ponds or municipal workers cleaning these polluted water bodies as it is hazardous to their health and well-being. Scaled up, this model can work on larger bodies of water and even oceans. It could help to save our marine life and balance aquatic ecosystem largely. Talking of his future plans, he shares, “With heavy duty motor and bigger scale model, this vessel has the potential to clean up the coastal areas and it could be even workable on oceans. With proper funding, I wish to use this model to sweep oceans too. I even plan to make it energy efficient by generating hydroelectricity in future.”
He aims to develop this model so that he could view it working on a larger scale. What sparked his curiosity about increasing pollution has led him to design a model which would help to eliminate this problem. Such young ignited minds are taking the winds of change ahead.
Source….Ankita Singh in https://thelogicalindian.com/
It is only to enable you to put good thoughts into practice that goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are worshipped during these Dasara celebrations. Durga is not to be understood as a ferocious goddess. She is the Goddess Supreme who protects you. Lakshmi is the embodiment of all wealth. Saraswati is the goddess of speech. Good thoughts, good words and good actions represent the tatwa (essence) of these three goddesses. He who teaches good things to you is verily the embodiment of Goddess Saraswati. He who teaches evil is verily a demon. Goddess Durga destroys only such demons. Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are, in fact, not different from you. They are very much installed in your own heart. They exhort you to lead the life of a human being, since you are a human being. Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are the three mothers to a human being.
Every yajna has a great unseen influence on human life, for these sacred formulae are potent sounds, charged with subtle mysteries. The ritual sacrifice (yajna) has a deeper meaning; the meanings that symbols have is really valuable and essential for human progress. Every rite is a symbolic act. Yajna is correlated at every step with human aspirations and spiritual practices. It is kept in touch with human life and aspirations in its minutest detail. Butter is the product of the churning of the emotions, impulses, impressions, and instincts of people – the purest and the most authentic essence of the divine in people. That butter, when it is still more clarified, becomes ghee, and that is what is offered to the Gods! When you pray, always concentrate on the everlasting fruit – the universal, the spiritual. Do not pray for small mundane desires; direct your mind to follow the guidelines taught by the Lord to re-establish righteousness (dharma) in the Universe.
Former president (late) APJ Abdul Kalam’s birth anniversary is being marked on Monday. Kalam, who was also known as the Missile Man of India, had served as the 11th President of India. He was born on 15 October 1931 in Rameswaram and breathed his last on 27 July 2015. While being a world-renowned scientist, Kalam had also interests in literature, writing poems, playing musical instruments and even spirituality. He had written some very well-known books like ‘India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium’, ‘Wings of Fire: An Autobiography’, and ‘Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power within India’.
Here are some lesser-known things about the people’s president to whose heart children were very dear:
Kalam was not born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Coming from a family of average resources, he grew up watching father renting his boat to fishermen to run his house. In fact, Kalam used to deliver newspapers every morning to earn money.
Kalam was a very simple man. When he died, he left behind nothing but 2,500 books, one watch, six shirts, four pants, three suits and one pair of shoes.
After retiring, Kalam lived on his pension money and royalty from the sales of his books.
When his term ended as president, Kalam did not take any gifts home and deposited them into the government treasury.
According to one his former media advisors, there was a time when Kalam used to live in a government quarter where he did not have television and used to access news on radio / newspaper.
Kalam had once visited IIT-Mumbai. The students were so much interested in meeting the scientist that a huge queue formed outside the auditorium. In fact, some of the students had queued up at night itself to see the Missile Man. After the event, Kalam did not disappoint any student and met them all.
Kalam had once revealed that he wanted to become a fighter pilot but could not clear the exam. Later in 2006, as president, Kalam had flown in a Sukhoi jet.
The ten-day Dasara festival is meant to encourage you to control your ten senses. Legend says that Goddess Chamundi killed the demon Mahisha during this Dasara festival. What is the inner meaning of this story? We should not under any circumstance associate ourselves with demons. Your thoughts, words and actions must be pure, worthy of being human and not demoniac. Avoid bad company and always be in good company. Do not develop hatred towards anyone. Whomever you come across, consider them as embodiments of Divinity and salute them. Always speak truth, observe righteousness (Dharma). Be peaceful. Be happy and blissful. You should conduct yourself with love in society. I am suffused with love. I distribute that love to one and all. I do not hate anyone. I have no selfishness at all! My love is selfless love. Love is My property. You all are heirs to that property. Love is God, God is Love. Hence, live in love.
